The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-09-01
TALNhGE'S SERMON.
The Power of the Gospel Shown by
Overwhelming Proof.
Faith the Christians InvincibIe Weapon
In the Conhict-Mere Argument ~
Nothing Before the Testimo-
ny of witnesses,


The Hamptons," the discourse beinl
founded on the following text:
We are witnesses.-Acts It'll
In the days of George Stephenson, tn,
perfecter Of the locomotive engine, tn,
scientists proved conclusivelv that q rail
way train could never he driven bv steam
power successfully and without peril, but
the rushing express trains from Liverpool
TO Edinburg. and from Edinburg to Lon.
don, have made all the nation witnesses OF
the splendid achievement Machinists
and navigators proved conclusivelv that a
steamer could never cross the Atlantic
ocean; but no sooner had they successfully
proved The impossibility Of such an under,
taking than the work was done, and the
passengers on the Cunard, and the Inman,
and the National. and the White Star lines
are witnesses. There went mp a guffaw
Of wise laughter at Prof. Morse,
proposition TO make the lightning of
Heaven his GRAND bov. and il was proved
conclusivelv that the thing could never be
done: but now all the news Of the wide
world, put in Tour hands every morning
and night, has made all nations witnesses.
so in the time Of Christ il was proved
conclusivelv that il was impossible FOR
logically that when man was dead he
was dead, and the heart and
the liver and the lungs having ceased to
perform their Offices. the limbs would be
rigid beyond all power of friction OF
arouSal. They showed 1t to be an sbso-
Lutte ahsurditv that the dead Christ should
get mp i've: hut no sooner had they
proved this than the dead Christ arose.
and f.c hay
took the ~itness-Stand to prove that to be
true which the wiseacreS If the day had
proved to be impossible: the record of the
experiment and Of the testimony is in the
text:
Him hath God 70 sod rom the dead. whereof
we are witnesses.
Now, let me play the Skeptc for a mo-.
ment,
"There is no Cod" saws tie skeptic, "for
have never seen him with NV physical
evesight. Your Bible is pack of contra
dictions. There never was a miracle
Lazarus VAS not raised from the dead,
and the water was never turned into
wine. Your religion is an imposition on
The Credulity of the ages"
There is an aged man moving In that
pew as though he would like to respond.
Here are hundreds of people with faces a
little flushed at these announcements, and
all through this house there is sup.
pressed feeling which would like to speak
out in behalf Of the truth of our glorious
Christianity, as in the days of the text,
crying out:
We are witnesses.
The fact is, that if this world is eve,
brought TO God it will not be through ar.
Gument, but through testimony. You
might cover the whole earth with apollo
gies for Christianity and learned treatises
in defense Of religiou-you would
not convert a scul. Lectures
on the harmony between science
and religion are beautiful mental discip-
line, hut have never saved a soul, and
never will save q soul. Put man of the
world and a man of the church against
each other, and the man of the world will
in all probability get the triumph There
are thousand things in our religion that
seems illogical to the world, and always
will seem illogical.
Our weapon in this conflict Is faith, not
logic; faith, not metaphysics: faith, not
profundity; faith, not scholastic exploa-
tion. But, then, in order to have faith, we
must have testimony, and if 500 men, or
1000 men. or SOC, 900 men, or 100000 men
get up and tell me that thew have felt the
religion of Jesus Christ Joy, a comfort, a
help, an inspiration, l am bound as fair
minded man to accept their testimony. |
want just now TO put before you three
propositions, the truth OF which think
this audience will attest with overwhelm-
ing unanmity.
The first proposition is; We are wit.
nesses that the religion of Christ is able to
convert a soul
The Gospel may have had hard time to
conquer US, we NAV have fought it back,
out we were vanquished You say con-
version is only an imaginary thing. We
know better.
We are witnesses.
There never was so great a change In
our heart and life on any other subject as
on this. People laughed at the mission
aries in Madagascar because they preached
ten years without one convert; but there
are thirtv-thTee thousand converts in Mad
agascar to-day.
= People laughed at DIR. Judso1, the Bap-
fist missionary, because he kept on preach
ing In Burmah five years without a single
convert; but there are twenty thousand
Baptists in Burmah to-day. People
laughed at DR.. Morrison, in China, for
preaching there seven years without
single conversion; but there are fifteen
thousand Christians in China to-day. Peo-
pie laughed at the missionaries for preach
ing at Tahiti for fifteen years without
single conversion, and at the missionaries
foS preaching in Bengal seventeen years
without a single conversion: yet in all
those lands there are multitudes of Chris
tians to-day.
But why go so far TO find evidences of
the Gospels power to save "a soul?
We are witnesses.
We were so proud that no man could
have humbled us; We were so hard that no
earthly power could have melted us !;
angels Of God were all around about us,
they could not overcome us; but one day,
perhaps at Methodist anxious-seat, or at
a Presbyterian catechetical lecture, or at
burial, or on horseback, a power seized
US, and made us get down, and made us
tremble, and made us kneel, and made us
cry for mercy; and we tried to wrench
ourselves away from the grasp, but we
could not. 1t flung us fiat, and when we
arose we were as much changed as
Gourgis, the heather, who went into a
prayer-meeting with a dagger and gun,
to disturb the meeting and destroy it, but
the next day was found crying;
"Oh! my great sins! Oh! my great
Saviour" and for eleven years he preached
the Gospel of Christ to his fellow-moun-
taineers, the last words on his dying lips
being.
Free grace~
Oh, it was free grace!
There is a man who was for ten years a
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